Digging teeth for loading machine digging blades



Nov. 3, 1953 R. Q. ARMINGTON ET AL 57, 80

DIGGING TEETH FOR LOADING MACHINE DIGGING BLADES Filed Oct. 11, 1947 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG-I INVENTORS RAYMOND Q. ARMINGTON 8. WILLIAM F. KLUN pL wiga l I i o-4.4M

ATTORNEYS 1953 R. Q. ARMINGTON ET AL 57, 80

DIGGING TEETH FOR LOADING MACHINE DIGGING BLADES Filed Oct. 11, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS. RAYMOND Q. ARMINGTON 8. WILLIAM F. KLUN AT TORN EYS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG-3 R. Q. ARMINGTON ET AL DIGGING TEETH FOR LOADING MACHINE DIGGING BLADES Filed Oct. 11, 1947 Nov. 3, 1953 WILLIAM Patented Nov. 3, 1953 DIGGING TEETH FOR LOADING MACHINE DIGGING BLADES Raymond Q. Armington, Shaker Heights, and William F. Klun, Euclid, Ohio, assignors to The Euclid Road Machinery 00., Euclid, Ohio,

a corporation of Ohio Application October 11, 1947, Serial No. 77 9,344

Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in oscillating diggin teeth immediately in advance of a digging blade.

An object of the present invention is to provide digging teeth in front of and closely adjacent to a blade adapted to move forward in a digging path, the purpose of the teeth being to slit or break up the ground immediately in front of the digging blade.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel sup-port for digging teeth positioned substantially upon a digging blade which is inclined rearwardly and upwardly.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel mechanism for oscillating digging teeth of the type described above.

Still another object of the invention is to provide digging teeth of the type described in combination with a belt conveyor adapted to carry away the material loosened by the teeth and specifically the combination wherein the mechanism for oscillating the teeth is driven through the head pulley of the conveyor.

Other objects and advantages of our invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and description and the essential features will be set forth in the appended claims.

In th drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a conveyor loader equipped with our improved digging teeth;

Fig. 2 is a fragmental top plan view of the machine of Fig. 1 omitting all of the parts not necessary to the understanding of the present invention;

Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged fragmental sectional views taken along the lines 3-3 and 44 respectively of Fig. 2, while Fig. 5 is a completely sectioned view of a portion of the Fig. 3 view.

While our invention is adapted for use with many types of digging blades, we have chosen to illustrate the same in connection with a conveyor loader of the type more fully described and claimed in the copending application of Raymond Q. Armington, Serial No. 777,887, filed October 4, 1947. Such a device is equipped with an earth digging blade in generally horizontal position adapted to dig the earth and feed the same on to a belt conveyor. It is difficult with such apparatus to di hard materials or gummy earth without first using a scarifier or some other device for breaking up the earth before processing the same with a conveyor loader. With our im- 2 proved device the entire job can be accomplished in one operation.

We will briefly describe the conveyor loader of our copending application sufficiently so that the present invention may be understood. This con-'- veyor loader is drawn by a tractor a portion of which is shown at 18 as having parallel endless tracks H and a yoke 12 pivoted to the tractor at l3 and connected by a hitch M to the drawbar I5 of the conveyor loader. The hitch I4 is fully described and claimed in the copending application of Stanley Mayner and Frank L. Kapel, Serial No. 513,702, filed December 10, 1943, issued as Patent No. 2,488,676 on November 22, 1949. The drawbar is connected with a torque tube [6 which in turn is rigidly connected with two L- shape frame members 11 and [8 which are pivotally connected at I9 to side frame members 20 which form part of a main frame supported on two crawler tracks 2|. A motor 22 on this frame supplies power for driving all of the necessary apparatus. An hydraulic jack 23 mounted 'on the frame is connected with the rearward extension l5a of the drawbar so that operation of the jackraises and lowers the member I! and the forward portions of the side frame members 20. A tubular frame member 24 extends between the side frame members and at its mid point, on a ball and socket joint 25, supports the main frame 26 of a belt conveyor. The upper end of the conveyor frame is supported on a cross member 21 and generally vertical struts 28. This is all clearly shown in the above mentioned copending application Serial No. 777,887.

Referring now to Figs. land 2, the conveyor frame 26, in operative position, extends at an angle to the center line of the side frame members 20 and therefore at an angle to the. drawbar l5 and the general path of travel of the device as it is pulled behind the tractor. The conveyor belt 29 carries excavated earth upwardly and sidewardly and deposits the same over a head pulley 30 into a wagon travelling alongside the conveyor loader. Mounted at the forward end of the conveyor and just in front of the tail pulley 3| is a digging blade 32, formed in sections if desired and as shown in Fig. 2 having a bottom cutting edge 32a which is generally horizontal. This blade is secured to a supporting plate 33 by means not shown. The upper edg of the plate 33' overlies the belt 29 as clearly shown in Fig. 3 so that excavated earth is pushed up the plate 33 by the travellin motion of the apparatus and falls on to the belt 29.

Digging teeth 34 and 35 constituting the present invention are supported for oscillating motion about generally vertical pivots 3B and 3'5 respectively. Since the construction connected with each tooth is substantially the same, one only will be described. The tooth 35 is V-shape in section providing a sharp digging point Ma and a central ridge 3411 running up the front of the tooth. The tooth is hollow in the rear and provided with a pocket 350 into which enters the front end of a lever 33. Lever 33 pass-es through an aperture or gap 320 between adjacent sections of blade 32. This lever is connected to the tooth by a pin 38 which passes through both of them. A short distance back from the forward end, the pivot pin 35 is welded into the lever at points 4 8 and 4|. The upper end of this pin is of reduced diameter and carries a bushing 32 which is held in a bracket 43 which in turn is connected with a frame member it rigidly connected with the conveyor frame 25. Blade supporting plate 33 is also secured to frame angle member M. A nut 45 threaded on the upper end of the pivot pin 38 holds these parts together. An opening 33a is provided in the plate 33 for access to the nut 55 and this opening is provided with an upwardly convex cover 18 secured to the plate 33 by means not shown. It will be noted from Fig. 3 that the rear edge 3% of the digging tooth is generally parrallel to the blade 32. The oscillating means is connected with the rear end of lever 3% where a pivot pin 41 connects with a link 38 which in turn is mounted by bearing :39 on a crankshaft 50. In a similar manner, a lever 5| for operating tooth 35 is connected by link 52 and bearing 53 with a throw 58s on the crankshaft.

Referring to Figs. 2 and d the crankshaft Eb carries at. its upper end a bevel gear 5 which meshes with bevel gear 55, both of which are suitably mounted for rotation in a housing 56. This housing is supported by brackets 51 on the conveyor frame 26. The bevel gear 55 is connected by shaft 58, universal joint 59, shaft til, universal joint GI, shaft 52 and universal joint 63 with a set of bevel gears 34 and 55 driven by the head pulley 3B. The opposite end of the head pulley is connected by bevel gears (not shown) with shaft 66 which in turn is driven by a suitable connection with motor 22. In the mid portion of the crankshaft is a web or link b which connects the throws together. The lower end of the crankshaft is supported by bearing 6! in a bracket 58 which is connected to a beam 53 which in turn is rigidly mounted on the conveyor frame 26.

It results from the above construction that when, motor 22 is operating, shaft 5 6 will drive the head pulley 30 which in turn will drive the bevel gears 65 and 64 so as to turn the shafts E52, and 58 resulting in rotation of the bevel gears 54 and 55 and the rotation of the crankshaft 50. This will cause oscillating motion of the links 48 and 52 which will oscillate levers 38 and 5| respectively causing the teeth 34 and 35' to wobble from side to side as indicated. in the dot-dash lines of Fig. 2. It will be noted that the oscillation of the point of the tooth is less than the width of the tooth measured crosswise of the digging blade, so that the resistance to the passage of the tooth through the earth is minimized. These teeth will break up or slit the earth immediately ahead of the blade 32 and if the teeth are spaced approximately as shown in Fig. 2, they will divide the strip of earth passing to the conveyor belt into strips of approximately equal width if the portion of blade 32 to the left of the line A in Fig. 2 is used for cleaning up loose material rather than for virgin digging.

What we claim is:

1. In combination, a digging blade adapted to be moved forwardly, said blade sloping upwardly and rearwardly from its cutting edge, a conveyor sloping upwardly and rearwardly from said blade, said blade having a generally horizontal cutting edge, there being a gap in said blade, a tooth overlying said gap and closely adjacent said blade, said tooth, having a forwardly-directed earthslitting point, a generally vertical pivot, a lever extending below said conveyor and passing through said gap and mounted on said pivot for oscillation relative to said framework, means connecting the forward end of said lever with said tooth, means for oscillating said lever connected to the rear end thereof, and a common framework upon which said blade and said conveyor and said last mentioned means and said pivot with said lever are mounted.

2. In combination, a digging blade adapted to be moved forwardly, said blade sloping upwardly and rearwardly from its cutting edge, a conveyor sloping upwardly and rearwardly from said blade, said blade having a generally horizontal cutting edge, there being a gap in said blade, a tooth overlying said gap and closely adjacent said blade, a generally vertical pivot, said tooth having a forwardly directed earth-slitting point, a lever extending below said conveyor and passing through said gap and mounted on said pivot for oscillation relative to said framework, means connecting the forward end of said lever with said tooth, the rearward end of said lever extending beneath said conveyor, a crankshaft at one side of said conveyor, a link connection between said shaft and the rear end of said lever, means for rotating said crankshaft, and a common framework upon which said conveyor and said blade and said crankshaft and said last mentioned means and said pivot with said lever are mounted.

3. The combination of claim 2 wherein said last named means comprises a head pulley for said conveyor, means on said common framework for rotating said head pulley, and a driving connection between said head pulley and said crankshaft.

4. In a conveyor loader comprising a frame, a belt conveyor on said frame having a tail pulley and sloping upwardly and rearwardly from said pulley, means on said frame for moving said conveyor forwardly, and an earth cutting blade on said frame extending generally horizontally in front of said tail pulley and adapted to deliver earth to said conveyor as said conveyor and blade move forwardly, the combination therewith of a plurality of teeth in front of and closely adjacent said blade, each tooth of said plurality of teeth being spaced from another of said plurality of teeth to slit a strip of earth cut by said blade into a plurality of ribbons, all of said teeth extending generally parallel to the line of conveyor movement forwardly, each tooth tapering in width forwardly to provide an earth-slitting point, and means on said frame for wobbling said teeth from side to side, said means comprising a rearwardly extending lever on each tooth which lever extends longitudinally through an aperture in said blade.

5. In combination, a digging blade adapted to be moved forwardly, said blade sloping upwardly and rearwardly from its cutting edge, a conveyor sloping upwardly and rearwardly from said blade, said blade having a generally horizontal cutting edge, there being a gap in said blade, a tooth overlying said gap and closely adjacent said blade, a generally vertical pivot, said tooth hav-. 5 ing a forwardly directed earth-slitting point, a

lever extending below said conveyor and passing through said gap and mounted on said pivot for oscillation relative to said framework, means connecting the forward end of said lever with said tooth, means for oscillating said lever connected to the rear end thereof, and a common framework upon which said conveyor and said blade 6 and said last mentioned means and said pivot with said lever are mounted.

RAYMOND Q. ARMINGTON. WILLIAM F. KLUN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

